Awards

2010 Distinguished Nurse Alumna

Dorothy M. Pringle OC RN PhD FCAH

Dorothy M. Pringle, PhD ’81, is professor emeritus at the University of Toronto where she was dean of nursing from 1988-1999. Her degrees are from McMaster University (BScN), the University of Colorado (MS, Nursing) and the University of Illinois (PhD, Nursing). Dr. Pringle has five honorary degrees, is a recipient of the Jeanne Mance Award from the Canadian Nurses Association for lifetime contributions to nursing and was invested as an officer of the Order of Canada in 2008. She is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences where she is a member of the Board and treasurer and a Senior Fellow at Massey College of the University of Toronto.

Early in her career, Dr. Pringle was a staff nurse and mental health nursing coordinator in acute care and in psychiatric hospitals but later moved to caring for older people with dementia in both community and residential settings. She was research director for VON Canada (Victoria Order of Nurses), Canada's largest not-for-profit, charitable home and community care organization from 1982-88. She has held academic positions at McMaster University, Laurentian University where she was director of the School of Nursing from 1974-78, and the University of Toronto. She was Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership from 2004-2009.

Her research has focused on the quality of daily life of cognitively impaired older people particularly those who live in long term care facilities and of their family caregivers. The concept of ‘Making Moments Matter’ and sources of pleasure in the daily lives of residents of nursing homes with advanced cognitive impairment and the quality of the relationships between nurses and patients in residential settings are of particular interest.

Dr. Pringle has served on many research peer review committees including the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR), Canada Foundation for Innovation, National Health Research and Development Program, Medical Research Council of Canada, and the Alzheimer Society. She was the inaugural chair of the Institute Advisory Board of the CIHR Institute of Aging and a member of the Advisory Board from 2001-2009, chaired the Canada Research Chairs Adjudication Committee, co-chaired the Federal/ Provincial/Territorial Committee on Public Health Human Resources and was a member of the Expert Committee for Human Research Participant Protection in Canada.

Currently Dr. Pringle is a member of the Gerontological Advisory Council of Veterans Affairs Canada and a member of the Boards of the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation and Associated Medical Services. She is Executive Lead of Health Outcomes for Better Information and Care (HOBIC) which is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.